


Touch Bonded

by Destielshipper4Cas, noiproksa



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Comfort, Fluff, Healer Castiel, Hunter Dean, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magic, Spells & Enchantments, Touching, Witch Castiel, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-02-23 01:55:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23003902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destielshipper4Cas/pseuds/Destielshipper4Cas, https://archiveofourown.org/users/noiproksa/pseuds/noiproksa
Summary: Whenever Dean gets hurt on a hunt, Cas (his witch friend he has a crush on) heals him with a gentle touch that Dean secretly cherishes. When it happens more and more often, the witch gives him a protection amulet that is supposed to keep Dean from getting hurt.Suddenly, Dean notices injuries appear on Cas, and the witch’s explanations for how he got them don’t make much sense.Being touch bonded to a witch can have its perks too, though, and soon Dean finds a way to turn the tables on Cas and show him how good the right kind of touch can feel.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 502
Kudos: 1770





	1. Chapter 1

Upon entering Cas’ cabin, Dean was leaning heavily on Sam, not because he really needed the support, but because that way, he could score sympathy points with Cas, who couldn’t be too mad at him if he was hurt.

The witch narrowed his eyes and heaved a sigh. “Again?” he asked. But he took Dean’s other arm and draped it over his shoulders anyway, helping him to the chair.

“Nice to see you too,” Dean quipped back.

“I think it’s only a concussion this time,” Sam talked right over him.

Dean tried one of his charming smiles, which only served to make his head pound harder. “What can I say, they like throwing me across rooms.”

‘They’ had been shapeshifters this time.

Cas’ frown only deepened at that, so Dean added, “You should see the other guy.” Of course, ‘the other guy’ was dead, so a slight concussion was nothing in comparison.

Not even dignifying Dean’s attempts at joking about it with an answer, Cas sat down on the chair next to Dean and leaned over to touch his temples, mumbling something in an ancient language, his voice strangely soothing.

This was Dean’s favorite part about their visits and why he didn’t mind being thrown around by monsters so much. It was maybe a bit of an extreme way to get your crush to put his hands on you, but in order to heal him, Cas always touched him so softly and with so much care that it was totally worth it.

Dean sighed and closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of Cas’ fingers on his temples. The headache receded all too soon, but Dean had a few tricks up his sleeve to keep those healing hands on him a moment longer.

He groaned when he felt Cas about to withdraw, and just like he knew he would, the witch paused at the sound and then continued the treatment a while longer.

Finally letting go of his temples, Cas asked, “Are you feeling better yet?”

Reluctantly, Dean nodded. After all, he had inadvertently made Cas question his healing abilities before in an attempt to keep the connection between them for a bit longer.

“Yeah, thanks,” he said when he opened his eyes. He already missed the feeling of Cas’ healing touch.

Sam was standing to the side, looking a bit uncomfortable as he usually did when he was watching Cas heal Dean.

Without another word, Cas got up and left for his bedroom. 

Exchanging a look with Sam, Dean shrugged his shoulders. Could mean anything. Maybe Cas was done with them and this was his way of saying goodbye. He wasn’t the chattiest of witches after all. Or maybe he was just fetching a bag of raw honey for them—he’d done that before.

“So, do we just… go?” Sam asked, apparently unsure about what Cas’ sudden departure meant as well.

Dean got up from the chair to join Sam, but before he could make a decision one way or another, Cas returned, some sort of witchy amulet in one hand. Dean hadn’t been far-off with his guess that the witch might have a parting gift for them, it seemed.

“You have gotten hurt on hunts a lot lately,” Cas started, looking down at the amulet in his palm. It was glowing softly, a beautiful mixture of green and blue. “I believe you might be safer with this protection amulet.”

He held it out for Dean to take, fixing him with his usual intense stare.

“Neat.” Dean took it, his fingers brushing against Cas’ in the process.

“Only wear it during hunts to give the magic time to recharge. And you should be careful regardless,” Cas advised. “Try not to get hurt.”

“Aw Cas, didn’t know you cared,” Dean said with a wink for emphasis, slipping the amulet into his pocket.

“Apparently more than about me,” Sam mumbled. “How come I don’t get a protection amulet?”

Cas’ intensely blue eyes wandered over to Sam. “It is always him who ends up here with injuries of various degrees. I was unaware that you are in need of protection as well. Plus, it is very complicated magic that is interwoven into this amulet, very draining really…”

“Don’t mind him,” Dean interrupted Cas’ explanation. “He’s just jealous of our ‘profound bond.’” Another charming smile fell flat when Cas just squinted at him in return.

It had been Cas who had called it that once because he had been the one to save Dean from a dark witch when they had first met. He’d had to cast a spell for that which had put Dean under Cas’ protection and thus, according to the witch, a ‘profound bond’ had been formed.

“Anyway,” Dean cleared his throat. “Thanks. And, y’know, for patching me back up.”

Cas nodded. “I hope not to see you again too soon.”

“Yeah, always nice catching up with you,” Dean said, rolling his eyes.

He knew that Cas didn’t mean it like that, that he just didn’t quite grasp the intricacies of human communication. Still, it wouldn’t hurt the witch to tell him again that he had a more profound bond with Dean than with anyone else, or that he enjoyed seeing Dean too, even if it was just to heal some injury he had acquired on a hunt.

⁂

“So, are you ever planning on asking him out?” Sam asked in the Impala on their way back.

“What? Shut up, it’s not like that,” Dean denied, even though it was pretty much exactly like that.

“Yeah, right.” Sam obviously didn’t buy it either. “I’ve been watching you flirt with him for months now. I’m waiting for the day you want to drive out here for a paper cut.”

“I had a concussion. That’s a serious thing.”

“Yes, and last week, you sprained your ankle and the week before that it was a bruise that needed immediate healing. Since when do you need medical attention for small stuff like that?”

“Since we have a witch who can take care of it with a simple touch. We’d be pretty dumb not to make use of that.”

⁂

Sammy had to eat his words only a few days later because for the first time, he was the one who suggested a trip to Cas’ cabin after he had fallen down and, by the looks of it, broken his arm. They hadn’t even been on a hunt. He’d just taken a tumble down the bunker stairs.

When Dean commented on the fact that karma really was a bitch, Sam just flipped him off with the hand of the good arm.

Being the great brother that he was, Dean sped all the way to Cas’.

“You are hurt?” Cas asked as soon as Dean entered, his voice more surprised than the situation deserved. “Did you not wear the amulet?” He was already looking Dean up and down in an attempt to find the injury.

“Nah, I’ve been good,” Dean reassured him. “It’s Sammy here this time.”

“Yeah—do you mind?” Sam asked, stepping up next to him and motioning to his arm he was holding at an odd angle.

“Oh. Yes, of course.”

Cas held out his hand above Sam’s arm and closed his eyes, concentrating. He was mumbling some unintelligible words and Dean watched fascinated as the arm healed.

Apparently, Cas didn’t even need to touch the person he was healing. Weird. The witch had always put his hand on Dean’s arm or shoulder or on one notable occasion hand to heal _him_.

This might require further investigation into how witch magic worked.


	2. Chapter 2

Before Dean could do research on the topic of witch healing magic (or have Sam do research more than likely), a hunt came up.

Even though Dean was wearing the protection amulet, the monster landed some nasty punches before they managed to gank it. They hurt like a son of a bitch—so much for the ‘protection’ part of the amulet. Well, Cas _had_ mentioned that it was complicated magic. Maybe he hadn’t gotten the spell right.

Dean was all set to drive to Cas for one of his healing sessions when he realized that he wasn’t even sore. Checking himself in the mirror confirmed that there were no bruises. His skin had actually never looked as… bruise-free.

Huh. Seemed like the protection amulet did work after all. It didn’t magically block an attack the way Dean had imagined it would, but apparently it did take care of injuries he acquired during a fight.

Unfortunately, that meant that he didn’t have an excuse for visiting Cas anymore. During the next few weeks, whenever a trip to Cas would have been necessary before, the amulet magically healed him now, rendering a visit to Cas unnecessary. Dean experimented around with the amulet’s powers a bit, letting himself get beat up more than usual, but no matter the injury, it would vanish as soon as he had acquired it.

It got to the point where Dean considered leaving the amulet at home for a hunt, but Sam reminded him of it and Dean didn’t exactly have an excuse for why he wouldn’t want to wear it.

“I’m kind of invincible now,” Dean told Sam after a vicious fight with a bunch of demons that should have left his nose broken or eye black. They were back at the bunker, having a beer in the kitchen, which didn’t taste as good as a victory beer was supposed to.

Sam frowned. “Why do you sound so unhappy about it?”

“’m not unhappy.” Dean shrugged a shoulder, hoping that Sam would understand without him having to explain. “Just… y’know…”

Sam looked at him for a moment all serious and half bitchface-y and then said, “You know, we _could_ visit Cas even if neither one of us is hurt. I mean, let’s put aside the fact that you have the hots for him for a second…” Dean spluttered at that, but Sam ignored it and went right on, “He’s still our friend.”

That… was a remarkably easy solution to the problem.

“Well, if you want to…” Dean said, trying to sound casual about it. Just a big brother doing his little brother a favor.

Sam just rolled his eyes.

⁂

The muddy road that led up to the cabin always meant that they had to drive very slowly (and Dean would have to clean Baby later), which meant that they saw Cas before he saw them.

The witch was at the door, apparently saying goodbye to some broad-shouldered man in a black coat and some kind of fisherman’s cap. Maybe another witch—no normal human being dressed that way! They were standing very close to each other. It almost looked like they were… hugging? It was difficult to see from a distance. Then they both looked up when they heard the engine approach, and the man walked away. Right into the forest.

Huh. Dean had never thought about social contacts Cas had outside of them. The witch wasn’t really a people person.

They finally arrived and Dean killed the engine so that they could get out and walk towards Cas.

“Dean! Sam! What are you doing here?”

“What was _he_ doing here?” Dean countered, motioning in the direction the man had disappeared in.

From up-close, Dean realized that Cas was looking awful. Big bags under his eyes, and scratches and bruises all over his face.

“Oh, he’s just an old friend,” Cas replied, avoiding eye contact.

Dean was left speechless. That had been an obvious lie. Cas had never lied to him before. For good reason as it seemed, since apparently, he sucked at it.

“You got into a fight?” Dean asked, deciding to focus on the bruises instead. Maybe the mystery man had hurt Cas. Maybe it was a hunter trying to gank him. They had looked rather cozy together, not like they had been in a fight, but who knew…

Cas tilted his head and frowned at him before his eyes widened and his hand shot up to touch a particularly nasty bruise next to his eye. “Oh. No. This… was just a spell gone awry.”

Wow. That was a second lie.

“Gone awry?” Dean repeated, unimpressed.

“Yes. Horribly awry.” His eyes were downcast once more, looking everywhere but at Dean and Sam. How one witch could be so horrible at lying was beyond Dean.

“Really. What did you want to do?” Dean asked, trying to catch him in his web of lies.

“Grow some flowers in the garden.” Cas was quick to come up with the excuses, though, Dean had to give him that.

“Yeah? What kind of flowers?”

“Okay. Enough,” Sam interrupted them. “We didn’t come here to interrogate him,” he reminded Dean.

“Right.” Dean would figure out what was going on here anyway. He didn’t need Cas to tell him. “You inviting us in or what?”

Cas did invite them in, making them some kind of strange witch tea, which tasted weird, but they drank it anyway without complaining because that’s what friends did.

After some idle chitchat, it was Sam who said what Dean was thinking, “We’ve missed you.”

Cas didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he glanced towards Dean. “You both did?” he asked.

He sounded so unsure, as if he had no idea how much he mattered to Dean, that he felt his heart ache. He cleared his throat, shot a quick look at Sam, reminding himself that his brother was still there and he couldn’t get too mushy, but he had to reassure Cas. “Yeah, I… Of course.”

The shy smile he got from Cas in response made it worth it. “I’ve missed you too,” Cas said, looking straight at Dean while adding, “Both of you.”

Dean looked down at his cup of tea and smiled too. When he caught Sam watching him, he cleared his throat and changed the subject. “So. Why don’t you just heal yourself?” he asked, indicating Cas’ injuries. He’d seen the witch wince now and again when he shifted too abruptly, and he suspected there might be some bruises underneath his clothes as well.

“Oh. That is very… complicated magic. Very draining, really. I’ve had to use quite a lot of magic recently.”

“Okay.” Decision made, Dean got up. “Then I guess it’s our turn to do the healing. We’ll just have to do it the human way.”

“That is not necessary,” Cas began to protest, but there was no way Dean would let him be in pain if he could do something about it.

“Sammy, go get the first-aid kit. We’re patching up a witch.”

⁂

Regardless of Cas’ protests that he was ‘fine,’ Dean and Sam had done their best to take care of his injuries, and by the time they had to go back to the bunker, Cas had some Band-Aids in his face and a first-aid kit they had left for him just in case.

Unfortunately, Cas had not agreed to let them take a look at his back and chest, claiming he wasn’t hurt there anyway (raising the number of lies he had told Dean to three).

“Maybe it really was a magic accident,” Sam suggested in the Impala on their way back.

Dean rolled his eyes. Yeah, right. “He was lying his little witch ass off.”

“I’m just saying… Why would he be lying about that?”

That was a good question. If he was having problems with hunters, he could tell them. They would take care of it for him.

“I bet it has something to do with that strange man,” Dean said because no matter how much he had pried, he hadn’t even gotten a name out of Cas.

Maybe he should focus on a hunt instead of thinking too much about it. Kicking some monster ass and getting his own ass kicked usually did the trick and got him out of his head for a little while. He just hoped that his usual coping mechanism worked as well when all he felt was the initial pain before it went away and he didn’t even have anything to show for it.


	3. Chapter 3

When they came back from the latest successful hunt, Dean had had enough. It hadn’t really distracted him from thinking about Cas—which, granted, wasn’t new, but usually, he’d think about the witch fondly and would look forward to their next visit. This time, though, he was _worried_ about Cas and that was not nearly as much fun.

For some reason, Sam didn’t approve of his awesome plan to go stake out Cas’ cabin in an attempt to find out who that sketchy guy was they had seen with the witch. That’s why Dean found himself down by the road leading up to Cas’ cabin by himself.

He parked the Impala at the side of the road where he could just make out the cabin in the distance, and settled in to observe who came and went—which was exactly no one for a the first hour and a half.

At some point, Cas came out, talked to some squirrel and went back inside.

Dean had totally already gone through his food supply he had brought along and it didn’t seem like anything was about to happen here soon.

Suddenly, something landed on the hood of the car and Dean instinctively reached for his gun before he saw that it was just a squirrel—which was looking at him kind of funny. Upon closer examination, he saw that it had a small roll of paper tied around its neck.

Seemed like he was busted.

He got out of the car and the squirrel immediately jumped into his arms, spluttering angrily, still with that narrowed-eyed look.

“Would you hold still?!” Dean muttered, trying to untie the piece of paper.

As soon as he had it, the squirrel squeaked at him one last time before jumping off him and disappearing into the crown of the next tree.

Dean unrolled the paper.

‘It is more comfortable inside my cabin and I have fresh honey,’ the note read.

Smiling despite himself, Dean shook his head and made his way to the cabin.

“Hey, Cas,” he greeted the witch and waited for the “Hello, Dean,” before Cas showed him inside to the table, where he had indeed a bag of honey he offered to Dean as soon as they had sat down. No bread, no nothing, just honey. Although there was a bowl with mashed herbs turned into mush on the table too, but it looked anything but edible.

“Your squirrel is kind of angry,” Dean said, tearing his eyes away from the bowl.

“She isn’t ‘my’ squirrel,” Cas corrected him, air-quotes and all, “and she isn’t particularly fond of hunters.”

“We hunt _monsters_ , not animals,” Dean said, a bit affronted that Cas’ animal friend didn’t like him because he _made the world a safer place_.

“I know. I tried to explain, but she’s rather stubborn. Don’t take it personally.”

They lapsed into silence but before Dean could come up with a discreet way of asking about the bruises he could _still_ see all over Cas (and were those _new ones_?), the witch asked, “Was there a reason why you were sitting in your car down the road for over an hour?”

Seeing the opening for what it was, Dean said, “As a matter of fact, there was. Someone is clearly using you as a punching bag and you should just tell me who it is so that I can kick their ass.”

“Oh, Dean…” Cas sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t get why you’re protecting them! Is it your boyfriend? Is it like a domestic abuse situation?”

“Boyfriend?” Cas asked, squinting at him.

“Yeah, you know, beard guy? With the—with the coat?”

Cas rolled his eyes. “Benny is not my boyfriend.”

Benny. He finally got a name. He filed that away for later.

Cas already continued, “And he is not hurting me.”

“Yeah? Then who?”

“Would you stop worrying about it? You know how clumsy I can be, and it’s not that bad. I was just about to apply these herbs to my bruised ribs, which should take care of—”

“Bruised ribs?!” Dean interrupted him. Something stirred in the back of his mind, but he didn’t have time to examine it further when Cas was here right in front of him in need of someone to take care of him. “Okay, let’s see ’em.”

“Dean…”

“Consider me your witch in training. What do I gotta do?”

Cas heaved another sigh. But then he surrendered to him and motioned to the bowl with the disgusting mush. “Well, I already mixed the tincture and just wanted to add some honey.”

The witch hadn’t even stopped talking when Dean already followed instructions.

“Okay, what next?”

A blush appeared high on Cas’ cheeks. “Well. It’s. You know.” He wrung his hands, adorably flustered. “Has to be applied to the injured area. You can give that to me, I can—”

“Nah. I got it.” He dipped two fingers into the thick ointment and scooped some out, watching fascinated as it glimmered with a trace of magic.

Then he turned to Cas, eyebrows raised, waiting patiently for the witch to show him the ‘injured area.’

Finally, Cas hesitantly lifted his shirt and Dean drew in a quick breath when he saw his side which had taken on a purple hue.

“Ouch,” he commented, sympathetic.

“It’s really not that ba—” Cas started, but the creamy substance was about to be absorbed by Dean’s fingers, so he lightly touched them to Cas’ side, which shut the witch right up, even though the blush deepened on his face.

Dean gently rubbed the tincture into Cas’ skin, careful not to hurt him further in the process. Soon, the ointment disappeared into the witch’s skin and Dean had to scoop out more, tracing it along Cas’ ribs and down to another bruise on his hip.

He worked in silence, mesmerized by the effect his touches were having. The bruises already started to fade ever so slightly, and Cas was sighing contently, eyes drooping closed, visibly relieved by his ministrations.

This was completely different to taking care of Cas together with Sam. So much more… sensual, for lack of a better word. He really shouldn’t let his mind go there because he was just taking care of a friend in need, but getting to touch Cas like this for once—it felt great!

“There was a… a washcloth actually,” Cas mumbled after a while, motioning towards the bathroom.

Dean’s eyes followed the movement to the bathroom and he said, “Oh.” Yeah, that made more sense than having that goo stuck to his fingers. Somehow, that didn’t seem like enough of a reason to stop, though, especially since Cas didn’t seem to care either.

His attention was drawn to the potted plant over by the window, which was starting to bloom, blossom turned away from the window and towards them. He hadn’t even known that kind of plant _had_ a blossom.

He only realized that he had stopped working the magical ointment into Cas’ skin when the witch said, “Ignore him. He just wants to get fondled too.”

“‘Fondled,’ huh?” Dean repeated, delighting in the fact that Cas’ blush crept back up again.

“Or healed,” Cas quickly corrected himself. “‘Healed’ is what I meant to say.”

Wasn’t that the plant that picked up on Cas’ mood? Dean didn’t ask that question out loud since he didn’t want to embarrass the witch further, even though he was even cuter than usual when he was all ablush and fumbling his way through his sentences.

So, Dean just continued to ‘fondle’ him, thrilling at the feeling of Cas’ soft skin and the fact that _his_ hands were the healing hands for once, taking away Cas’ pain and making him feel good.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as Dean had some bars on his cell phone, he texted Sam from the road and let him know the strange guy’s name was ‘Benny,’ so that he could include that information in his research.

He was almost all the way back to the bunker when Sam sent him a photo of an old newspaper article with a picture of Benny. Another text came in that said, ‘Benjamin Lafitte. Been dead for a while.’

Dean immediately hit the brakes, making Baby swerve a bit. Seemed like Cas’ friend was a monster. Question was: What kind of a monster and was Cas aware of it?

Unfortunately, Cas didn’t have a cell phone. Dean had given him one of course, but there was no cell service up at Cas’ cabin. So Cas only checked his messages sporadically when he went to the next town to trade for stuff he couldn’t make himself.

Dean left a message anyway, just in case, to warn Cas, and then turned the car around.

Maybe Benny was a witch-eating monster who had fooled Cas into believing he was harmless but was really out to get him. In any case, Cas should know about it asap, not only when he went to the town the next time (which might as well still be a month away; Cas got by on very little).

When he came back to the cabin, he barged right in in his haste, and froze when he saw that he was too late.

Benny had a hold of Cas’ head, tilting it back and—

“Vampire!” Dean yelled and went in for the attack, punching him to get him off Cas.

The vampire stumbled backwards, his fangs showing and glistening with Cas’ blood, which gave Dean the needed adrenaline to keep fighting a vamp even without any weapons that could kill his kind.

“Dean!” Cas yelled. “Stop!”

The vampire landed a punch himself—which was an unusual fighting technique for a vamp. They were usually all about the teeth and going for their opponents’ necks.

“Benny—don’t hurt him!” Cas was still trying to get between them, but Dean ignored him the same way the vampire did.

Then suddenly, Dean froze and couldn’t move anymore no matter how much he tried.

Cas had an arm outstretched towards him, keeping him from attacking the vamp. The other arm was doing the same thing to Benny. It was clear from the sweat forming on his forehead that it was costing him a lot of energy to keep it up, though.

“Stop it!” Cas repeated. “Both of you!”

Then he lowered the hand that kept Benny in place and Dean wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

But the vamp didn’t attack, just brushed off his coat sleeves. “Told you hunters are bad news,” he said to Cas, completely ignoring Dean, who was still frozen in place.

“Just—go,” Cas said.

Instead of leaving, Benny stepped right up to Cas.

Dean struggled against the magic hold on him and finally had the feeling he was making a half an inch of headway.

Benny picked up something that looked like a piece of moss, rubbed it over Cas’ neck, and the next second, the bite marks started to fade.

Then he nodded at Cas, mumbled, “Take care,” and walked out the door.

Cas sighed, his still outstretched arm trembling slightly. “I told you Benny is an old friend. He doesn’t turn anyone, he doesn’t attack anyone… I allow him to feed every once in a while and he helps me with some complicated potions. He was a witch before he was turned.”

Dean began to wonder how much longer until he could break through the hold on him.

As if Cas had read his mind, he said, “You’re not going to go after him if I let you go, are you?”

Of course, Dean couldn’t answer, but Cas finally lowered his arm anyway. Dean had half a mind to chase Benny down, but by the time he’d get a suitable weapon out of the trunk, Benny would be long gone anyway. Plus, from the looks of it, Cas wouldn’t easily forgive him if he did.

“He’s a _vampire_!” Dean said instead, in case Cas hadn’t realized that when Benny had _sucked on his neck_.

Cas rolled his eyes. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. You see the world in black and white. Benny is a _good_ vampire and a friend. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“ _Good vampire_.” Dean snorted. Yeah, right. There was no such thing as a ‘good vampire.’ And who had ever heard of a vampire witch anyway?

Cas crossed his arms in a stubborn pose. “He’s the best witch I know. He’s been helping me with my injuries.”

“Funny. I thought _I’ve_ been helping you.”

The thought of Benny applying ointments to Cas’ naked torso didn’t sit well with him. But since he didn’t enjoy fighting with Cas, he softened his tone. “So… he really wasn’t the one who hit you?” He would definitely keep an eye on that vamp, but maybe he could hold back on ganking Cas’ friends for a while.

“Not this again,” Cas sighed. “You have to let this go, Dean.”

He did look better, actually. Maybe a bit pale. That last part was definitely all on Benny. But Dean liked to think the fact that he looked better had been his doing from when he had helped Cas earlier.

Dean on the other hand could feel a bruise forming on his jaw where Benny had punched him. “Haven’t been in a fight without the amulet in a while,” he realized when the unfamiliar feeling of throbbing pain was making him aware of it. “Hey, does it work if I put it on _after_ I’ve gotten injured too?”

“No,” Cas said, a bit too quickly and forcefully.

“Couldn’t hurt to try, right?”

“I think I know better how my magic works. Let me just—” He took a step closer, but Dean in return took a step back as well, evading Cas’ hand that was reaching for his jaw.

“Whoa. You didn’t even have enough mojo to heal your own injuries. Maybe you should take it easy.”

“Well, my own injuries were… more complicated. I can heal a small bruise…”

“No way, man.” Again, Dean took a step back, but he was running out of space and had reached the weird plant, which gave him a friggen shove with its huge-ass leaves so that he stumbled right into Cas, who caught him and laid a gentle hand against the side of his face.

“Cas—” Dean warned, but he could already feel the nice tingling that made the pain go away and left him feel all warm and fuzzy. Taken care of.

Cas was still cradling his face for a moment longer than necessary and Dean enjoyed the contact and could only barely hold back from turning his head so that he could kiss Cas’ palm.

“Thanks,” Dean mumbled after Cas let go of him. “You’re an idiot by the way.”

“You’re welcome. And look who’s talking.”

After Dean had grudgingly promised not to go on a hunt for Benny, they said their goodbyes for the second time that day. Dean would just have to trust that Benny knew that if he hurt Cas in any way, Dean would be coming for him.

The whole drive back, something else was nagging at him, though.

At home, once he had brought Sam up to speed and had retreated to his room, he took out the amulet and turned it between his fingers, deep in thought. He still couldn’t quite make sense of why Cas had protested so vehemently against Dean using it to take care of the bruised jaw. Something wasn’t quite right.

Then there were the strange bruises that had appeared on Cas seemingly out of nowhere.

Surely, Cas wouldn’t have… Or would he? Dean tried to think back to the fights he had gotten into during their last hunts. Where would he have gotten hurt if the amulet hadn’t immediately healed all of his injuries? Could it be some sort of transference spell that didn’t just get rid of his injuries, but actually transferred them to _Cas_?

The more he thought about it, the more he realized: that would totally be the kind of stupid stunt that witch would pull. Self-sacrificing idiot, indeed.

Time to test that theory.


	5. Chapter 5

“And then you tickle me or something, and if he reacts, we’ll know for sure,” Dean explained his foolproof plan to Sam.

“Why don’t you just ask him?” said Sam, who always found fault with his plans.

“Because,” Dean said. “He could just deny this whole thing. We don’t want to tip him off that we’re on to him. We need to act normally, not raise suspicion.”

Sam’s raised eyebrows told him that he still wasn’t getting on board. “And tickling each other is the way to do that? Wouldn’t it seem more natural if I just punched you?”

“No,” Dean said, ignoring the poor attempt at a joke. “If I’m right, it’ll be like you punching _Cas_. We’re not punching Cas!”

Finally, Sam agreed to go along with the plan, but since it was pretty late, they decided to go the next day, which, coincidentally, gave Dean time to do some research about healing magic (after he had tried to pass that task off to Sam, who had laughed at him and said that he’d go off to bed).

The symbols on the amulet were unlike any he found in the books in the library. After a couple hours of turning pages, he finally found something about transference magic, though, which apparently required a strong emotional connection.

Emotions seemed to be important for all of the spells Cas cast, stemming from his love for nature and all living beings, so Dean wasn’t that surprised about it. But according to the ‘Old Book of Enchantments,’ a complicated magical spell like this required the strongest emotion of them all.

Dean read that sentence again, heart pounding just a bit faster. Did Cas… did he know about Dean’s crush? Should he have picked up on all of his attempts at flirting and just never responded because he wanted to let him down easy, pretending he was oblivious to Dean’s advances instead?

Okay, this was not the time to get bent out of shape over something he didn’t even know was true. Fact was, if Cas had used a spell like the one mentioned in the book, it would explain why he’d had trouble healing his own injuries since technically, they weren’t his.

The more Dean read about it, the more he saw his suspicions confirmed. Still, his plan for the next day would clear things up once and for all.

With that thought in mind, he went to catch his four hours of sleep (now more likely only three hours) before they’d pay another visit to a certain witch.

⁂

The plan was not going well.

They had been sitting around for over an hour, talking about everything from how the ants were anxious because of a rumor of an anteater that had allegedly been spotted in the forest to random facts about why vampires were a dangerous species (skillfully woven into the conversation by Dean: _“Well, you can’t blame them. Anteaters are to ants basically what vampires are to humans. Or, you know, witches.”_ ).

It seemed like Sam was chickening out, though, since he had yet to tickle or touch Dean in any way.

Dean, of course, was wearing the amulet, hidden from view under his shirt, and he was close to just kicking the table leg to find out if Cas would feel that.

When the witch got up to brew a new pot of tea, Dean whispered, “What are you _doing_?!”

“Nothing?” Sam whispered back.

“Exactly. Did you not understand the plan?”

“You didn’t provide me with a good opening to tickle you.”

“Just… I don’t know, poke me or something.”

“Poke yourself!”

“I have to watch for his reaction,” Dean hissed back. Apparently, Sam really _hadn’t_ paid close attention to Dean’s awesome plan.

“Can’t you do both?”

Dean sighed. “Why did I even bring you?”

At that moment, Cas came back with the teapot. “This should help calm your nerves,” he explained. “I realized that you haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a while.”

“Thanks,” Dean said, touched that Cas had picked up on that and was trying to help.

But this visit wasn’t about Cas helping Dean, it was about Dean helping Cas.

So, he cleared his throat and turned to Sam. “Hey Sammy, know what we haven’t done in a while? Had a tickle match.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cas frown at them, and Sam almost blew their cover by rolling his eyes exaggeratedly.

“I have never been involved in a ‘tickle match,’” Cas stated, using air quotes. “How does that work?”

“You don’t want to know,” Sam replied.

But Dean had finally managed to provide them with an opening, so he said, “He just asked. He clearly wants to know.” Then he turned back to Cas and said, “We’ll show you.”

Since Sam didn’t seem inclined to make the first move, Dean attacked him first, knowing the right places to go for from when they were kids, and finally, his brother defended himself and—bingo.

While Dean wasn’t all that ticklish and could keep his reaction to a suppressed chuckle, Cas bent over and started full out giggling, trying to evade invisible hands.

When Sam and Dean stopped short to look at him, he gasped for breath and then once he had recovered, said, “Yes, I can see now what you mean. Tickle match.”

This was it—they had clearly caught him in his lies. Cas seemed to realize this too when neither Dean nor Sam said anything, and so he added, “My apologies. I am a sympathy laugher.”

Dean could barely hold back from pointing out that his pants were about to catch on fire. But he would get that witch to fess up one way or another.

“Hey, Cas. So, there’s supposed to be some evil forest spirit roaming around here somewhere,” Dean said. If Cas could come up with dumb excuses, then so could he. “And I thought driving back and forth every day is a bitch, so while we’re hunting that down—mind if we’re crashing here for a bit?”

“There is no evil spirit in my forest,” Cas promptly disagreed.

“Well, we’d like to check it out anyway if you don’t mind.”

“What’s this ‘we’?” Sam cut in. “I never agreed to this… obviously very necessary hunt. I would like to sleep in my own bed tonight, thanks.”

“Okay, seems it’s just me you’d have to put up with as a guest.”

Cas narrowed his eyes at him, clearly not fooled just as Dean had seen right through Cas’ own bullshit. But the witch was too polite to refuse him, which Dean had counted on, and so, a little while later, Dean was carrying the duffle bag he always kept in the trunk of his car into the cabin.

They had said goodbye to Sam, who would come and pick him up in a few days, giving Dean enough time to figure out what to do about this newfound knowledge and get Cas to admit what was going on.

Now that he knew for a fact what Cas had done, he couldn’t help but think back to the times he had been careless on hunts because he had known that he wouldn’t get injured. All the while, Cas had taken the injuries and the pain on himself. Essentially, _he_ had gotten Cas hurt.

Sure, it was kind of Cas’ own fault for being an idiot who did stupid things without regard to his own safety, but still. Dean would never want to be the reason Cas was in pain, ever.

He would, however, want to be the reason Cas felt _good_.

Dean thought about what he had read about transference magic and how injuries were only one type of touch that could be transferred from one person to another. Of course, there were also the good kind of touches.

“Dean?” Cas interrupted his thoughts. “You remember the rule about only wearing the amulet on hunts, right?” he asked. Of course, he had to have figured out that Dean was wearing it by now. Maybe he thought he had ‘forgotten’ to take it off.

Dean nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

That was the one time he would definitely never wear it again.

“Just because… It’s not supposed to be worn on other occasions, you see,” Cas continued, a bit flustered. “It’s very complicated magic…”

Complicated indeed. “Yeah, you’ve said that before. Don’t worry, I got it.”

What he _wanted_ to say was ‘I got _you_.’ Because he did. He would make sure to show Cas some nice kind of touches to make up for all the pain. After all, the witch deserved some kindness and affection and to be touched with care.

This could be interesting.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean had never spent the whole day with Cas before, so it was fascinating to see what Cas got up to when they usually weren’t around.

Cas had started by waking up the flowers in his garden, which, according to him, liked to sleep in on cloudy days. A smidge of magic was enough, though, to get them to rise so that the bees could collect their pollen. In return, Cas had an agreement with their queen so that he could get some honey to sweeten his potions, so collecting honey had been next on his list of things to do.

Currently, Dean was sitting in the kitchen, looking out the window and watching Cas stand in front of the cabin, arms outstretched, putting protection spells on the forest and its animals within. He had his eyes closed and had a concentrated frown on his face. You couldn’t really _see_ the magic of course, but ever so often there was a flicker of something in the air that told Dean that Cas was still at it.

Dean himself was supposed to read some old Wiccan book about forest spirits Cas had lent him. Dean had to at least pretend to read it, even though it was completely unnecessary.

He had yet to find an opportunity to use the amulet for good since he didn’t think startling Cas while he was in the middle of doing witchy things was a good idea. He had even taken the amulet off because he was a bit self-conscious when he scratched his head or inadvertently touched himself in some way.

Since his mission was on hold for the moment, he finally gave in and actually started reading up on wind spirits and water spirits who, as the book pointed out, could get mischievous, but weren’t evil. Apparently, a forest where spirits had settled was a sign for a healthy forest.

Dean began to suspect that Cas might be friends with one of them too and that the reason he had given him the book was to get Dean to drop the (pretend) hunt.

Finally, Cas was finished with his witch duties for the day, but Dean got distracted when Cas offered to show him some simple magic that was all around them and that even normal humans could tap into.

After all, not every kind of magic had to flow through a magical being in order to be used. And so, they spent the rest of the day making leaves and pine cones disappear and reappear, which was kind of cool.

Of course, Cas could just do that with a flick of his wrist, but he taught Dean a spell with complicated words he didn’t understand. In combination with some powder they made out of pollen, Dean became a total pro at hiding things from the human eye. This could be useful knowledge for pranking Sam.

He’d had so much fun the whole day that he only remembered the real reason he was here when they said goodnight and he was left alone in the guest room.

This was the perfect time to experiment around a bit. After all, it was a bit strange to just fondle himself. Normally, he didn’t touch himself to make himself feel good—apart from when he was touching his dick, of course. But when did you ever really give yourself a cuddle?

Dean put on the amulet, got comfortable on the bed, and after debating where and how he could touch himself, he just went for it, trying to imagine that it was Cas he was caressing.

He started by slowly stroking up his left arm and then tracing down the inside of it. When he reached the inside of his wrist, it felt a tiny bit ticklish, but in a good way.

Feeling himself up was a bit weird, but he just had to concentrate on the thought of Cas feeling all of this too, and Dean _really_ wanted to stroke Cas’ arms and… and shoulders. Okay, that was a bit harder to do by himself. Back to areas that he _could_ reach.

Lifting up his shirt for better access, he tried light, soft touches along his stomach to his hips.

He was close to kissing his way up his own arm, but that would be a bit _too_ weird. Instead, he had another idea.

Cas had given him a feather he had found while picking berries. He had been really excited about it because it meant that some kind of rare bird had come back to his forest. Then he had looked all shy when he had offered the feather to Dean, who didn’t really know what to do with it, but had thanked Cas anyway because he had gotten the feeling that it was important to the witch.

Now, it turned out that the feather was really useful. Dean quickly took it from the nightstand and ran it up and down his arms, then sides, letting himself enjoy the touches that sent goose bumps up his arms. He could just imagine other places he could run it up and down...

After a while, he became all pliant and drowsy and he hoped Cas felt the same way. He put the feather away and wrapped his arms around himself in a weird self-hug.

“Cas!” he whispered, imagining embracing the witch for real instead of doing it by amulet proxy.

He’d had Cas’ name on his lips before when touching himself, but in a completely different context. Now, it was just a sigh, blissful and full of love.

Somehow, he felt more connected to Cas with the amulet around his neck now that he knew what it did, and so he kept it on as he drifted off to sleep.

⁂

The sound of someone sneezing woke him up.

Dean looked around the guest room, but didn’t see anyone. Then the flower on the windowsill sneezed again.

Great. Dean had completely forgotten that Cas’ plants were weird-ass plants that had a life of their own. The flower was totally gonna rat him out, wasn’t it? Telling Cas all about how Dean had sighed Cas’ name while fondling himself…

“You keep your mouth shut about what you saw in here,” he warned the flower. Well, it couldn’t really keep its _mouth_ shut since it didn’t have one. “Your petals?”

The flower seemed totally indifferent (which might be due to the fact that it had no face). Apparently, that hadn’t kept it from smelling the strong scent of… burning herbs? that was in the air.

Dean quickly got dressed and when he entered the living room, he saw Cas swinging some sort of censer through the air, chanting quietly to himself in some strange language.

“Uhm…” Dean said, making Cas turn around to him and stop chanting. “Is this like a morning ritual or something?”

“Oh, no. I’m just warding the cabin against spirits.”

“Oh yeah?” Dean said, feeling a bit guilty for making Cas worry about spirits. It had just been a quick excuse so that he could hang around for a while.

“Yes,” Cas confirmed. “I had to consider the possibility that you might be right. Yesterday evening, there was definitely something in my room. I don’t think it was evil, but spirits aren’t supposed to enter my cabin without invitation, so… I thought my home could use some protection enchantments.”

Dean could do nothing but gape at Cas. This witch was so unfamiliar with being touched in a nice way that he hadn’t even realized what was going on—that he thought it was more likely a _spirit_ had been inside his cabin than Dean touching him through the connection of the amulet.

Unfortunately, Dean could just imagine that Cas was going such a long time without being touched that he would get confused about phantom touches that didn’t end up hurting him like taking on Dean’s injuries had.

“In any case, I decided I’ll come with you,” Cas said.

That brought Dean up short. “Come with me? Where?”

“On the hunt for the forest spirit, of course,” Cas replied. “I don’t want you to go without backup. Normally, you have Sam with you, right?”

“Uhm…”

“I just ask you not to kill it, but let me talk to it first. Oh, and I have packed us lunch,” Cas added as he made the censer disappear and two sandwiches wrapped in paper appear in its stead. “We might be gone for a while after all.”

Great. Now he had to go on a hunt for a spirit that he had made up. It seemed like he had not thought this excuse all the way through.


	7. Chapter 7

They started hiking up the mountain after breakfast. For a hunter, Dean had surprisingly little information about what they were hunting or what to do once they found the culprit.

But Cas didn’t want to question his methods. He had never accompanied Dean on a hunt before and he hoped that he could prove useful. Maybe then, Dean would ask him to come with him more often and Cas could keep an eye on him, make sure that he returned safely.

Before his idea with the amulet, most of the time Dean was on a hunt, Cas would sit in his cabin, worrying about some monster beating him up so bad that even Cas’ magic wasn’t enough to heal him.

One time he’d been sitting there, worried out of his mind, the idea had just come to him. Magic stemming from love was the most powerful magic of all—and Dean was _so_ loved. (Even if he didn’t know about Cas’ infatuation.)

He hadn’t lied—it really _had_ been very complicated magic. It had taken both Benny and himself to trap the magic within the amulet so that it wouldn’t ‘run out of juice,’ as Dean would say. The trick was to power it with his love for Dean—which, of course, was a never-ending source, so the amulet would constantly be recharged.

He glanced at Dean, who had been walking beside him silently for a while. The hunter was absent-mindedly fiddling around with something on his chest, and Cas looked closer.

“You’re wearing the amulet?” he asked.

“What?” Dean looked up as if Cas had caught him deep in thought. “Oh. Yeah. I mean—we’re on a hunt, right?”

“But I’m with you and could heal you if you got injured,” Cas said. “Besides, I told you—the spirit isn’t evil.”

He was pretty sure that there was no evil being inside his forest. The invisible late-night visitor from the day before hadn’t tried to hurt him. Quite the opposite actually. The touches had felt nice—if only the spirit had identified itself before joining him in his room. Maybe it had felt Cas’ yearning to be touched and wanted to help.

Dean shrugged his shoulders. “Better safe than sorry. You know, I think I sleep better when wearing this too,” he mentioned.

Cas stopped short, and Dean took a few more steps before he apparently realized that Cas wasn’t next to him anymore and he turned around.

“You wore it over night?” Cas asked, already putting the puzzle pieces together in his mind.

“Yeah.”

Oh. Seemed liked there hadn’t been a spirit in his cabin after all.

Dean was really the most stubborn hunter he had ever met. Cas had told him repeatedly—

“You are not supposed to wear it unless on a hunt!”

How difficult of a concept was that to grasp? Just thinking about witnessing Dean with someone… Dean would never forgive him if he found out. But the hunter had been alone yesterday, which meant that those hands had to have been his own.

Cas tried to ignore the memory of the phantom touch, which was so much nicer all of a sudden, now that he knew that it had been _Dean_ —who, of course, had no idea that Cas had been able to feel it.

Which brought him back to—

“The amulet was not made to be worn as an accessory.”

“Sure, but I figured I was in your cabin, so if it ran out of batteries—as you said, you’re right there anyway.”

Seriously. Most stubborn hunter!

“So… any other reason why I shouldn’t be wearing it?” Dean asked, his voice doing a funny thing that Cas couldn’t quite make sense of.

Dean didn’t know a lot about magic. It should be easy for Cas to make something up and Dean would have no way of knowing that it was just an excuse. But Cas had never been good at lying, and for some reason, lying to _Dean_ was even harder.

Of course, he couldn’t tell the truth either. For one, he did not wish to scare Dean away by disclosing his feelings, which at the very least would make things weird between them. On top of that, he suspected that Dean would not be happy to find out that Cas had magically transferred his injuries onto himself.

Dean always took on the world by himself and would do anything for his friends. If anything, he would prefer taking on _their_ injuries. But Cas was not ready to go back to worrying about Dean—who would no doubt stop wearing the amulet on hunts if he knew what it did.

“I… well… it’s…” Cas babbled, drawing a blank.

There was no good reason that would explain why he didn’t want Dean to wear the amulet outside of dangerous situations.

“Okay then,” Dean said and started walking again.

“That’s the wrong direction,” Cas informed him and took the lead again.

He had meant to stop by the waterfall and talk to Byrinx, see if they knew anything about a new spirit in town. But now, it seemed like the hunt was completely irrelevant anyway, since the spirit had turned out to be Dean.

Maybe, Byrinx could at least convince Dean that there _was_ no spirit for him to hunt.

⁂

Boy, Cas was one stubborn witch! Dean had given him the best opening to come clean and—nothing.

At least, he had been able to lay Cas’ worries at rest by admitting that the ‘spirit’ that had visited him the night before had in fact been him.

But Cas didn’t make them turn around. So, the ‘hunt’ was still on, it seemed.

Now that Cas knew, Dean should really think of ways to crank it up a notch, see how far he had to go for Cas to crack…

Around noon, they arrived at a clearing where a waterfall fed into a clear, little lake. It looked just like the kind of magical clearing he’d have expected Cas to visit.

“Wait here,” Cas instructed and approached the waterfall.

Used to Cas’ weird antics, Dean just put his backpack down and knelt down next to the lake. He could really use a refreshment from stomping through the woods.

The water was fresh and pure and tasted so good!

Cas seemed to be talking to the waterfall and Dean took the opportunity to scoop cool water over his arms and watch Cas turn around to look at him.

He grinned and waved at the witch.

After a while, Cas came to join Dean.

“They do not feel like being social right now, but they assured me that there is nothing for us to hunt in this part of the forest,” he said.

“They?” Dean repeated, looking around. He hadn’t seen anyone with Cas.

“The water spirit who’s living here,” Cas explained. “They take very good care of the lake and its surroundings. Don't worry. I explained your faux pas. They don’t mind that you took from the lake without asking. As a matter of fact, I asked for you and you have their permission.”

“Oh. Well, that’s good.” Cas frowned at him and Dean hurried to correct himself, “I mean—bad that this was a bust. But good that there’s no evil spirit around.”

Since Cas didn’t have any pigtails Dean could pull, he quickly bent back down to splash him with some water, which resulted in a whole thing because of course Cas retaliated and then somehow, they both ended up soaked.

Dean’s shirt was sticking to his chest and Cas’ hair was doing a funny curly thing that made him look utterly adorable.

Dean would have to be careful to keep his hands to himself because all of his instincts were telling him to kiss that witch.


	8. Chapter 8

For a moment there when Dean had stopped short and stared into his eyes, Cas had thought that maybe Dean had been about to lean in and kiss him. But of course he hadn’t. As if a hunter could ever fall in love with a witch.

On their way past the waterfall, Byrinx had the audacity to tease him about the playful flirting they had engaged in.

“That wasn’t flirting,” Cas whispered back, which got Dean to look at him questioningly.

Cas just waved him off.

Maybe Cas himself had intended it as ‘playful flirting,’ but he highly doubted that Dean had thought anything of it.

Deep in thought, Cas led them deeper into the woods, no real idea of where he should take Dean next. There were some annoying pixies further north, who sometimes came down to mess with his flowerbed, but they weren’t annoying enough to have Dean kill them.

He glanced at Dean who was trudging along beside him, his shirt still wet from their impromptu water fight.

Of course, Dean always looked great, but all wet like that… Oops. Dean had caught him staring. Cas quickly looked away.

Benny was right. Lusting after a hunter was never a good idea. Their species weren’t really supposed to get along much less get romantically involved. Not that Cas would care about that in any way if Dean were willing to look past that.

⁂

Dean was pretty sure that Cas was lost. He’d definitely been lost in thought for a while now and Dean’s sense of direction told him that they were getting farther away from Cas’ cabin, even though they should probably be on their way back by now if they wanted to make it back before nightfall.

Cas stopped short to look around. Yeah. That witch was totally and utterly lost.

“I’m not lost,” Cas insisted yet again.

But a few hours later, Dean had a really hard time not gloating over the fact that he’d been right.

“Hey, I have no idea how you do this without google maps or a compass or _some_ thing,” Dean tried to comfort him because Cas kept repeating that he’d never gotten lost in his forest before.

“Maybe you’re right and there _is_ some sprite who wants to confuse me. Some sort of goblin or gremlin…”

“Yeah, right. Let’s blame the gremlins,” Dean grinned. Seeing Cas actually make a mistake for once was refreshing. He’d already thought Cas was incapable of making mistakes.

This made him more human—well, witch-human.

“You could smirk a little less and be a little more worried,” Cas grumbled. “We can’t make it back before dark.”

Dean shrugged. It was already getting dark. That ship had sailed anyway. “Don’t worry, we’ll find our way back tomorrow. We can just sleep here or are you telling me you’re too delicate to camp out here?” he couldn’t resist teasing the witch. Then he raised his eyebrows. “I’ll protect you.”

This was fun. They’d been flirting back and forth all day, and Dean couldn’t help but amp it up a bit.

“Well, I could get us a couple of blankets,” Cas said and then he made his concentrated witchy face that told Dean he was doing magic.

The next second, two blankets appeared in front of them that Dean recognized from Cas’ cabin.

“Hey, they look the same as the ones on your couch.”

“They are the same,” Cas replied. “I just teleported them here.”

“Wow You can do that?!” This witch never failed to impress him. “Any chance you could teleport some food out here too?”

As it turned out, Cas _was_ able to do that, but apparently, it was rather difficult to do all the teleporting and after he had conjured up some food and a light that was floating above them, he didn’t have too much witchy power left.

They found a spot for the night where the trees were sparse and the moss made for a soft ground. (Well, that, and a little more magic to help it along.)

After dinner, they were all cuddled up in their blankets. It was completely dark now, save for the magic light.

All day, they had been sneaking glances at each other that made Dean think that maybe, Cas reciprocated his feelings or was at least attracted to him too.

Now, they were lying here together under a starry sky with Cas’ floating blurb of light casting a romantic glow.

The only thing keeping him from making a move was the fact that Cas was hard to read on his best days and if Dean had read the signs wrong, getting turned down would hurt like a son of a bitch.

When they were finished planning their next day (the plan was pretty much just to find their way back) and their conversation died down, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for Dean to take another crack at getting Cas to admit what the amulet was really doing.

The blanket offered the perfect cover to let his hand travel over his skin.

“Dean?”

“Yeah?” He hoped his raised eyebrow clearly said, _Something you want to tell me, little witch?_

“Nothing.”

So, Dean continued using light touches that were supposed to tickle a bit. He thought he saw Cas get goosebumps in the pale light.

Cas cleared his throat. “I think it is time to take off the amulet.”

“Are you kidding me? Now that you’re out of witch juice and there might be a gremlin on the loose, there’s no way I’ll take it off.” Then, deciding to lay it on a bit thicker, he said, “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me?” He tried to shoot him a daring look, but it might not have come across in the dim light.

Cas bit his lip and stayed quiet. Typical. But Dean was dead set on winning this round.

There was one place he hadn’t touched himself yet—a place that would freak Cas out enough to give in and give up the charade.

Unbuttoning his pants with one hand under the blanket was a bit tricky, but it was so worth it when he got his hand on his dick and saw Cas’ eyes widen. Yeah. Gotcha now!

Staying perfectly still while his fingers teased himself wasn’t easy. Neither was keeping his breathing even. But he was so close to winning, he could actually see Cas about to forfeit.

⁂

Cas didn’t know a lot about human behavior. Everything he knew, he had pretty much learned from Sam and Dean. But once, when he had visited them at the bunker for a follow-up healing, it had actually been _Dean_ who had taught him that you didn’t watch pornography with other people in the room.

He would assume that touching oneself intimately while in the presence of someone else would fall into that same category. But who knew—humans were a weird species after all.

Of course, Cas could _feel_ what Dean was doing and it was starting to affect his own penis, which obviously thought Dean’s hands were touching _Cas_.

“Everything okay?” Dean asked as if he wasn’t doing anything untoward underneath that blanket. “You’re looking kind of flushed there.”

Dean probably wasn’t even able to see just _how_ flushed Cas actually was, even more so because the light Cas had conjured up was starting to flicker.

“Cas?” Dean asked, and he realized that he hadn’t answered him, too focused on keeping his breathing under control.

“Yes, fine,” Cas said on an exhale.

A swipe across the head of his penis had him let out a cut-off moan. The light flickered one last time and went out with a sizzle. There was simply no way Cas could keep the light going with what was happening underneath the blankets.

He didn’t feel the urge for sexual release often—if he did, it was mostly when Dean had been around. He didn’t even touch himself down there a lot and hadn’t done so in a while.

That’s why it was no wonder that he was quickly getting hard from just these light touches. Okay, the fact that Dean was right there and was, in a way, the one doing the touching probably had something to do with it as well.

Suddenly, the invisible hand really took hold of him, making a fist around his hardness, and a thrill rippled down his spine.

Was Dean planning on bringing himself—and thus Cas—to orgasm?


	9. Chapter 9

Damn! Dean had started this whole thing as a surefire way of getting Cas to finally say something. But even though Cas got more and more flustered—blushing, losing his grip on the magic light, the works—he kept quiet.

Dean’s plan was starting to backfire because he was sure _he_ was about to crack.

Watching Cas trying to hide the effect his ministrations had on him was hot as hell. Dean might feel bad about it, but then again, Cas could stop this any time, if he wanted to.

The thought that Cas could feel it all—that in a way, it was like Dean was touching _Cas_ , not only himself, had him harder than usual when he beat one off. Well, usually, he wasn’t lying next to Cas either, so that was without a doubt a contributing factor.

It was getting harder to stay quiet, but Cas’ breathing was getting more labored too, so Dean wasn’t too worried about him noticing.

“Do you mind turning the light back on?” Keeping his voice steady was a challenge, but he thought he did a pretty good job of it.

“Dean…”

Dean stopped moving his hand, letting it rest on his dick in a loose grip. Here it came. Cas was looking at him all intensely, his eyes so blue Dean could see them in the dark—that might have something to do with magic or maybe Cas’ eyes always glowed like that when he was aroused.

“I…” Cas started and Dean was so sure he had won.

But he wouldn’t find out.

The next second, all hell broke loose.

Some inhuman scream (in the literal sense) was the only warning they got before an invisible force attacked them.

Dean was in hunter mode almost immediately, fumbling his dick back into his pants and going for his backpack to find a weapon.

Meanwhile, Cas had jumped up as well and was trying to use magic against the attackers, without much luck since he was still out of witch mojo.

Dean wasn’t having much more luck shooting at barely visible streaks flying through the air around them.

These fuckers had claws or maybe it was their teeth, but either way, they went for Dean’s arms and he almost dropped the gun.

Cas went from offense to defensive tactics, as Dean realized when a transparent bubble appeared around them and held the attackers off. Only for a moment, though, because then Cas went down to his knees, exhausted, and the protective bubble burst, letting these things in again.

Dean tried the knife instead, waving it around in an attempt to get one of them, but they just kept biting or pecking at him or whatever it was they were doing that hurt like a son of a bitch and left his shirt torn.

Cas was still on his knees, collapsing to the ground, and that’s when Dean realized what was going on here. Yes, the attack hurt, but he was still wearing the amulet—there were supposed to be wounds all over his torso, but the second he started bleeding, the bleeding along with the pain stopped because he wasn’t the one taking on all of those wounds.

“Cas!” he yelled just as the witch lost consciousness.

Ignoring the fact that the invisible attackers were still coming at him, he quickly ripped the amulet off, but apparently, it was too late. The injuries didn’t transfer back to him.

Determined and fueled by rage that these things were responsible for Cas lying on the ground and bleeding to death, Dean fought tooth and nail. He got one or two of them and then, finally, they vanished as quickly as they had appeared.

Letting the knife fall to the ground, Dean dropped down beside Cas and took his face between his hands, shaking the witch gently, desperate for him to wake up.

“Come on, Cas! You need to wake up so that you can heal yourself!”

Up close, he realized that there was a _lot_ of blood. This was not good! This was so not good! They were in the middle of nowhere, it was dark, Dean had no way of helping him here…

Or maybe he did.

He fumbled around on the ground until his hands found what he was looking for and he quickly put the amulet around Cas’ neck.

The very next moment, pain erupted all over him and he sunk down next to Cas. Right before he passed out, he thought he saw Cas blink open his eyes. 

⁂

He came to in familiar surroundings. The first thing he saw was that snooty houseplant extending its leaves like tentacles and bending down towards him. He was back in Cas’ guest room.

The sun was shining through the window—he had to have been out for a while then. Dean blinked against the light and tried to push that plant out of his face, but it was back in his face a second later.

“Yeah, morning to you too,” he grumbled, pushing it away once more.

“Dean!” Cas was standing in the doorway, looking so relieved that Dean was kind of embarrassed about how he, a hunter who was damn good at his job, could have been so blindsided by a bunch of whatsits the night before.

He waved at Cas as he sat up, and the witch hurried over, taking a seat at the foot of the bed.

The plant was nudging his shoulder.

“Okay, seriously. Can you get this thing to stop bothering me?” Dean asked, scooting away from the windowsill as far as he could without falling off the bed.

“He was worried about you,” Cas said, but with a wave of his hand, the plant withdrew. After a moment, he added, “We both were. I used my best potions, but the injuries were slow to heal. They had been made by magical beings after all. I’m glad you’re finally awake.”

“Flying gremlins, huh?” Dean asked. “Now I’ve seen it all.”

Breaking eye contact, Cas spoke to his own feet, “I should have believed you that there was something evil in my forest when you first mentioned it. I know that you have ‘hunter instincts’ and I just…”

“I totally made that up,” Dean interrupted him because he couldn’t have Cas blame himself here. That got the witch to look at him again, head cocked. “Yeah,” Dean shrugged, “my hunter instincts didn’t tell me shit about gremlins in your forest. I just wanted an excuse to stay here for a while.”

Cas furrowed his brows and said, in his typical Cas manner, “Why would you need an excuse for that?”

Dean huffed out a laugh, which only made Cas tilt his head further. “Well, at least I’m not the only one who made up excuses.”

Cas didn’t bat an eye and just stated, “You know about the amulet.”

“Kinda.” That was probably pretty obvious at this point since Cas had to have seen what Dean had done to save him.

Cas’ thoughts had obviously traveled along the same paths because he said, “You shouldn’t have taken it off, much less put it on me. That was a very stupid thing to do.”

“Oh yeah?” This witch was seriously trying to berate _him_ about endangering himself? “Right back atcha. Why in the world did you think it was a good idea to make an amulet that would hurt you?”

“Only if _you_ were hurt!” Cas protested as if that made it better in any way. “It’s broken now anyway,” he added. “It might surprise you, but it actually wasn’t designed to be switched back and forth. It was my… it was me who was supposed to power it and once the roles were reversed, it didn’t switch back…”

“You tried to, didn’t you?” Dean asked.

Cas was weird and hard to figure out, but Dean knew him well enough by now and he could just imagine that the first thing Cas had done when he had regained consciousness would have been to put the amulet back on Dean. The way Cas simply looked away now was answer enough.

“Incorrigible,” Dean muttered with a slight shake of his head. After a beat of silence, he added, a bit louder, “So, what do we do about the flying gremlins?”

“They are already taken care of. We transformed them into trees. That way, they can help the forest instead of terrorizing its inhabitants.”

That sounded like a good idea actually. But… “We?”

“Yes. Benny and I.”

“Benny?” Dean was careful to keep voice neutral.

“Yes, I called him for help. You might want to thank him. Without him, we wouldn’t have gotten back here in time.”

“You called him?” He should probably stop repeating everything Cas said, but why a witch would call a vampire for help was beyond him. “You don’t even have a cell phone.”

Cas rolled his eyes. “Witches have different means of communication.”

Silence descended around them and the plant used it to tap Dean’s shoulder. “Cut it out!”

Cas didn’t come to his aid this time. Instead, the witch looked at him before his eyes flitted away to the floor, then the ceiling, then back to Dean. Away, and back until Dean raised his eyebrows at him, encouraging him silently to just say what he wanted to.

Cas cleared his throat and finally began, “Have you… have you known before? About the amulet, I mean. Last night, before the attack?”

Of course, Dean knew what the real question was here. “Yeah, I knew.”

“Oh,” Cas said. They stared at each other for a moment, then Cas went on, “So… Is that… Is that something humans do?”

Usually, Dean wouldn’t let an opportunity like this to tease Cas pass him by and he’d say something like, ‘Well, most humans don’t have a magic amulet, so no.’ But this was Cas’ way of taking a careful (and clumsy) step towards communicating about what they meant to each other, and so Dean just smiled softly and said, “Yeah. Yeah, it is. If they’re, you know. In love.”

He might have to clarify later that they didn’t just do that when they were in love—he didn’t want to teach Cas something wrong about humans, after all—but right now, he needed to take the plunge and go all in.

“Oh,” Cas said again, wide-eyed. He didn’t say anything else for a few seconds and Dean was already starting to freak out on the inside when he continued, “Does that mean we can do it again? Maybe without an amulet and without the interruption of mauling gremlins?”

Dean couldn’t wait to give Cas all the soft, gentle touches without having to use a magical touch-transferring amulet as a proxy. He decided to start with a kiss, leaning in and feeling his heart thump wildly in his chest when Cas met him halfway.

⁂

When Dean woke up the next time—this time in Cas’ bed, snuggled closely against his witch, spooning him from behind—the first thing he saw wasn’t a plant, but a deer looking in through the window.

Since they were both naked, he quickly made sure they were covered by the bedspread.

Then he whispered in Cas’ ear, not letting the deer out of his sight. “There’s a deer staring at us.”

“Oh, that’s just Gwendolyn,” Cas informed him, unperturbed.

“You have a voyeuristic deer?! What am I saying, of _course_ you have a voyeuristic deer.”

Having a witch as a boyfriend might take some getting used to. But Dean wouldn’t trade it for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think in the comment section. 😊 
> 
> Thanks so much to the ones who have commented on this fic so far--you are the best and the reason I post anything at all. ❤️
> 
> If you want to support me another way, reblogging the link on tumblr would be awesome. **[Here's the link to the tumblr post](https://destielshipper4cas.tumblr.com/post/618283700339277824/touch-bonded-finished-rating-explicit-tags)**.


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